The present disclosure relates to a function of displaying an operation procedure, for example, utilizing screens displayed on a display unit provided on an image forming apparatus.
Some of image forming apparatuses display an operation procedure using screens displayed on a display unit. For example, an image forming apparatus has been proposed which can record the numbers of a series of maintenance screens displayed on a display unit at the time of maintenance in an external storage medium and reproduce a maintenance procedure on the display unit. According to this, maintenance can be performed in the same procedure as the maintenance recorded in the storage medium, wherefore even a person other than a service person can easily perform the maintenance.
An image forming apparatus has been also proposed which records a subsequent series of operation procedures in the form of an ID sequence of an operated key in an HDD of the image forming apparatus, for example, when a moving image registration button is depressed, whereby moving images of the series of operation procedures can be reproduced.
In the operation of the image forming apparatus, screens displayed on the display unit have a hierarchical structure with an initial screen at the top. Thus, how to access screens which are not normally used and located at the bottom of a hierarchy may not be known. For such a screen, it is convenient if an operation procedure of accessing that screen can be displayed on the display unit by being registered. In this case, a method for displaying the screen if the registered screen is selected like a so-called “favorite” is conceivable. However, if a targeted screen can be accessed by repeating the input of a set value (e.g. numerical value) to the screen and the switch of the screen according to a specific situation, it is difficult to apply the “favorite” method.
As described above, it is convenient if an operation procedure of accessing a registered screen can be displayed on a display unit. However, it is a burden on a user to request an operation of accessing a targeted screen from a higher ranked screen when the user registers a screen displayed on the display unit. Particularly, if how to access a screen is forgotten, that screen cannot be registered.
The present disclosure aims to provide an operation device capable of registering screens by an easy operation and displaying a procedure of successively accessing the registered screens from upper ranked ones, and an image forming apparatus and an image forming apparatus system provided with the same.